The Blue Bridge York

Watch the barges fat and low  
snub their way towards the wharves  
as once the  Romans some time back.  
The river languid now, brown with clay  
washing down from Ure and Nidd,  
dumped against the arch of Ouse Bridge  
one arch clear for pleasure boats.  
No dredging now, coal no longer needed  
the Co-op coal yard  long  gone,  
high rise now. . .that's progress.  
Richardson's Fertilisers  
serves cocktails its silver chimney  
no longer dusting  crowded streets  
where once workers lodged.  
Horses, carts and ostlers,
promenades where once was commerce.  
Skeldergate Bridge, draw bridge clamped,  
toll-house selling sweets.  
Take the New-Walk path  
passed Blue Bridge and the Foss  
on to Bishopsthorpe beneath the limes,  
Fulford, where we beat the Vikings  
A half hour only, yet beneath our feet  
two thousand years lie unheeded,  
Viking streets still to find  
follies yet to build.